What is a good hand saw to buy for ripping?

try this link
http://wenzloffandsons.com/saws/

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon

While those Wenzloff and Sons saws look like they’d be a dream to work with, they are also probably out of my budget and appear to not be taking any new orders at the moment. I will keep an eye on that site, though. Thanks!

Does anyone mass-produce even passable western saws? What kills me is that it looks like the market for wester rip saws is entirely composed of custom saws (lots of $$$), vintage saws (beat up stuff at a flea market), or crappy saws (intended for bad DIY carpentry).

-- Randomscrub, a completely novice woodworker

Prepare to spend Long Yankee Green for a good hand saw, new or antique. If you find a reasonalbly priced one one ebay, they aren’t hard to sharpen. Sumertime is a good time to look. A freind of mine who lists a lot of wood on there doesn’t list between May and October because the prices decline so badly.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

You can try estate sales.
That’s where I get most of my hand tools.
It is cheap, especially since many estate sale companies don’t know the true value of a disston hand saw.
So far, I have gotten 2 disston hand saws (one for ripping and the other for cross cutting) and one was $5, the other was $6.
They had very light rust and cleaned up in just a few minutes.
They work really great and they were still sharp.

I agree with cmaeda. I have picked up several hand saws at estate sales and never paid more than $5 for them. I got a Geo H Bishop and Co saw in near perfect condition for $4. Look there.

-- Bill - If I knew GRANDKIDS were so much fun I would have had them first.

There are a few (at least 2 or3) sellers on ebay that put up reconditioned saws. Cleaned up blades, refinished / repaired handles, and sharpened. It might help to create a search alert or just remember to check frequently.

With shipping, I think $60-70 each got me a rip and a xcut.

vintagesaws.com sells saws and the files needed to sharpen, along with instructions.

But like cmaeda says, try estate sales. Esp in older neighborhoods and rural. If the handle is comfortable and the blade straight, put a few dollars down. You can either learn to sharpen or find a sharpener.

Go to www.traditionalwoodworkers.com They have German made hand saws for $35.00 on page 50 of their catalog.

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Tom, that page doesn’t seem to go to any German hand saws.

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

See what you mean. I never went to their web sight but had gotten their catalog. I just assumed they would have their catalog on the web sight. Heres some other info to get to them. I will call them tomorrow and see what I get and let you know what I find out. Sorry for the wrong info.

Traditional Woodworker
1122 Commerce Drive
Richardson, TX 75081

1-800-509-0081

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Snail mail will always get there, eventually ;-))

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

The problem is that Tom accidentally pluralized the URL – it apparently should be http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/ – and that’s a great site for hand tools that I never knew existed. Thanks for the tip, and I asked them for a catalog!

-- Randomscrub, a completely novice woodworker

workin’ good now. They have quite a selection of RIP saws ;-)) Too bad I have some old ones to sharpen :-((

-- Debt is nothing more than the 21st Century's form of slavery.

Lie-Nieslen has some new handsaws that are worth checking out.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Sorry I screwed up guys. As you already found out, it is traditional woodworker. Someday your brain will turn to poo poo to.

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

I realise that I’m coming to this post rather late, but feel I needed to comment. You WILL NOT regret saving up and getting a Wenzloff Saw. I ordered a set of 7 saws. It took almost a year (due to their backlog) to get the saws. That gave me plenty of time to make an envelope for “saw money” and save it up.
I also recommend the Lie Nielsens. Have several of their saws. Lie nielsen now sells panel saws in rip or xcut.

I bought saws from Traditional Woodworker and they’l be OK for starter saws. But get the good stuff if you’re really serious about your work.

-- Bill, New Mexico, woodworker@q.com